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Gardening Services by WYO


WiSE and Wetherby Secure College of Learning Working Together

Children in Need Visit

We were very pleased to welcome David Ramsden Cheif Executive of Children in Need (2nd left) to Wetherby in June. David visited the scheme and met Jamie and the young lads working on the scheme.
Visits were also arranged in the villages to see the type of work Children in Need fund and how the elderly and the young offenders work and mix together. David was very impressed with how the scheme has grown over the last 3 years. At present we visit and look after 10 gardens a day and not surprisingly we have a waiting list.

WISE currently works in partnership with Wetherby Secure College of Learning, based at HMYOI Wetherby. We provide gardening services for older people who find it difficult to maintain their own gardens. No charge is made for the work; the elderly residents simply pay for any materials that are used.
This scheme is the only one of its kind in the country and it has recently received publicity and praise in the way of an article published in The Guardian newspaper.

The scheme is run by Ray Green and Siobhan and Jamie are the supervisors out in the community.
The trainees are risk assessed for suitability to earn Release on Temporary Licence and to take part in the project. They will already have been on the Horticulture course and working towards NPTC units which they can extend whilst on the project. This qualification gives them a great chance of a job and therefore reducing the risk of them re-offending.
The scheme also allows Wetherby to give something to the elderly in our community with help in their gardens but also has created an interaction between the young people here and the older people of our community in a very positive manner. The elderly see the trainees in a new light and, in some cases, the young people see the older people as almost surrogate grandparents.

We have received many letters of thanks for the project from satisfied residents and the trainees are, justifiably, very proud of this. The two pictures show a very overgrown hedge before the lads got to work on it and how it looks now.
The scheme has know been working in the villages in Wetherby and Harewood wards and last year alone made over 700 visits to peoples gardens
The scheme has been a huge success both with the elderly residents in our surrounding villages and with the young offenders. Older people are able to live independently in their own homes without the expense of hiring private gardeners.
They feel less vulnerable to burglary as a well kept garden makes it less obvious that an older person is living in a property.

Connecting Communities Award

This award was presented to us and the boys for winning the Connecting Communities Award. It won this for its community based project in partnership with WiSE. The scheme trains young offenders in HMYOI Wetherby with skills in horticulture and as a result the Young Offenders work within the community to maintain gardens for the elderly in and around Wetherby. This project has brought two communities together that would normally never meet, understand or have a mutual respect for one another.